One more thing about rain: You’ve heard “It’s raining cats and dogs,” of course. There are several proposed explanations for this phrase, but the most likely, I think, is simply that it alludes to an “improbable cacophony.” That’s because there’s a veritable torrent of similarly noisy and improbable phrases in other languages. Czechs say, “It’s raining wheelbarrows.” In Slovakia when it rains hard, “tractors are falling.” In Greek, “it’s raining chair legs.” In Gaelic, “it’s throwing cobbler’s knives,” and in Danish, “it’s raining shoemakers’ apprentices.” (Go figure.)